1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a button comprising a front cover and a rear cover, with a peripheral edge of the front cover bent and attached to a peripheral edge of the rear cover so that the front cover is fixed into the rear cover, and a button making device making such a button.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Conventionally, a button comprises a front cover having a substantially circular front surface plate and a peripheral edge extending downward from the front surface plate, and a rear cover having a substantially circular rear surface plate and a peripheral edge extending upward from the rear surface plate, and the button is formed in the following way. The peripheral edge of the front cover is bent and held fast to the peripheral edge of the rear cover by catching peripheries of a design sheet and a transparent cover body provided on the front surface of the front cover in the peripheral edge of the front cover and the peripheral edge of the rear cover. A button making device which produces the above-mentioned conventional button, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-32005, comprises a base, an arm fixed to the base, a pressing mold assembly attached to a tip of the arm and being moved up and down by a handle, a plate provided in a freely rotatable manner on the base, and first and second pressed mold assemblies provided on the plate. The pressing mold assembly moves up and down by a pinion rotated by the handle and a rack for engaging with the pinion.
In this conventional button making device, the second pressed mold assembly has a processing platform which bends the peripheral edge of the front cover to a side of the peripheral edge of the rear cover, and the processing platform has a substantially annularly inclined processing edge. The angle of inclination of the inclined processing edge of the second pressed mold assembly is all the same, and the inclined processing edge bends the peripheral edge of the front cover toward substantially the center of the front cover. Thus, in the conventional button making device, since the peripheral edge of the front cover is bent toward substantially the center, the front surface plate is dome-wise curved and has its shape fixed, and the cover plate can be held fast to the front surface plate.
With the above-described button making device of the related art, it was not possible to easily remove a pressing mold assembly which moves up and down by a handle, and a first pressed mold assembly and a second pressed mold assembly provided on a plate. Thus, if the pressed mold assembly or the first pressed mold assembly and the second pressed mold assembly were broken, there was a problem that they could not be replaced with new ones. Also, since it was not possible to replace the pressing mold assembly, the first pressed mold assembly and the second pressed mold assembly, there was a problem that it was not possible to make buttons of different sizes. Further, there was a problem that buttons could be broken because too much force was applied without realizing the extent of the force of the handle.
Also, the above-described button making device of the related art produced a circular button, and there was a problem that it was not able to produce a polygonal button. That is, for the above-described button making device of the related art to produce a polygonal button, a processing platform must be formed having a polygonal inclined processing edge which bent a peripheral edge of the polygonal front surface plate. This polygonal inclined processing edge has straight-line inclined edges and corner inclined edges. When bending the peripheral edge of the front surface plate by the straight-line inclined edges, the peripheral edge of the front surface plate was bent substantially perpendicularly against the bending line, and are not bent toward substantially the center. Thus, there was a problem that the front surface plate was not dome-wise curved but shaped like a wave, and thus a button was not be able to be produced uniformly. When the front surface plate was shaped like a wave, a cover plate was not able to be held fast to the front surface plate. Thus, there was a problem that when a design sheet printed with a representation of characters, a pattern, a design, or any combination thereof was placed between the front surface plate and the cover plate, it was not able to stay in place.
The present invention takes the above described problems into consideration, and a first object is to provide a button making device with which it is possible to easily remove a first pressed mold and a second pressed mold, and easily replace them with a new first pressed mold and a second pressed mold. A second object is to provide a button making device with which it is possible to easily remove a pressing mold and easily replace it with a new pressing mold. A third object is to provide a button making device with which it is possible to easily remove a first pressed mold, a second pressed mold and a pressing mold, and to replace them with a separate first pressed mold, a second pressed mold and a pressing mold of different sizes, to make it possible to make buttons of different sizes. A fourth object is to provide a button making device that prevents a pressing force from being applied onto the pressing mold which is greater than that for forming and processing.
Further, the present invention takes the above described problems into consideration, and a fifth object is to provide a polygonal button having the following characteristics: a front surface plate is dome-wise curved and has its shape fixed; a cover plate can be held fast to the front surface plate; and a design sheet can be placed between the front surface plate and the cover plate so as not to move. Also, a sixth object is to provide a button making device which can produce the above-mentioned button.